Initial reflection

I am sitting in Livingstone, Zambia at a backpackers lodge called Jollyboys right now looking at a quote on the wall by Earnest Hemmingway ‘I never knew of a morning in Africa when I woke up and I was not happy.’  That certainly must be the case if you only come here on holiday. This long weekend to here has been fantastic. Going back to Lusaka tomorrow will not be easy.

Trying hard to think of the best way to tell you all of what has happen this weekend. I think the best way is to start a series of three each sort of telling a new piece or a different angle of the unique places in this part of this wide world. I will try and start with a few little details that might slip my mind if I wait any longer and then give a more general overview later on. I know that is sort of counter-intuitive but… well I like being unpredictable.

The sunset at the falls yesterday was absolutely breathtaking. The little birds that burst out of the cliffs below when you approached the edge of the gorge were a deep blue with a yellow tinge at the tip of the tail. The roar of the falls was majestic and cool water at the bottom of the falls in a place called the ‘boiling pot’ felt heavenly to dip your feet in after the long walk down. Would have been nice to have after the long walk up too but, I will be thankful for the one. The baboons are not as friendly as they are depicted in the Lion King. Just know that they do not want to be disturbed and all should be fine.

I ran into a pretty good sized group of the little red butts as the group made their way down crossing a little bridge. They were all in the trees and playing in the dried up bed where, in the rainy season, water makes it’s way down to feed the Zambezi River after it has taken the beating of tumbling over Victoria’s heights.

I climbed to a little rock out-cropping for a better view up-stream of the tremendous gorge. The view was absolutely unequalled. I wish that I could explain it in more detail. You could see the little bits of green that managed to cling or crawl up the sides of the rock and where it did not manage you could see the orange-rust rock that defied the pressure, so far, to slip down and join the more gravitationally obedient brethren. The water rushing between and over the boulders creating this ’boiling pot’ was fierce and I could not help but wonder what it was like when Livingstone and those early explorers , that did not have nice steps to make their way down to the base thought when they first came to this place. Obviously they thought enough of it and were sufficiently intrigued by the awesome power and beauty to settle a village and live here.

Ok, I have two random bit here too that I would to add as I thought that they were pretty great. One, there is a business legitimately named ‘Uniturtle’ I am not terribly sure what it means or what they do but, I do know that I know have to come up with a new name for my organization in order to be original now. ‘Ambitortoise’ a bit of a mouthful but, I think it will serve as a suitable replacement. So if I see a place with this name here in Africa I will just pretend that I didn’t and I certainly will not document it so I can still keep my aura of creativity. The jig is already up, you guys know that I am not creative, that’s why I went into science! I don’t have to make things up I just have to present the data.  Two, I had a soft drink (or softie as they call them here) today called ‘Iron Brew’. Took me back to being a kid (a few weeks ago) When you get the fountain drinks and are not quiet able to decide on any one drink so you just prepare a little concoction we called the ‘suicide’. Had a bit of Big Red, Root Beer (Barq’s I believe), coke, and a touch of ginger ale. How could it not be delicious with a  solid name like that?

Alrighty, I know that this is an evil teaser and there is much more that I want to share but, I am exhausted and I need to get some rest. I hope that you all enjoyed a great weekend. I will be back in Lusaka tomorrow afternoon.  I am going to try and reset for the week and remember that Christmas is coming. All is well. Working on being able to use Mr. Hemmingway's quote as my own.